‘Star Wars’ comes to life in Washington Square Park

L.E.D. light sabers light up the night sky in front of the Washington Square Arch on Saturday. PHOTOS BY ERIN MALONE

One of the battle’s more serious Jedi knights.

BY YANNIC RACK | Jedi towards Fifth Avenue, Sith towards Broadway!” Kevin Bracken was shouting through a megaphone from a bench in Washington Square Park last Saturday evening, facing a sea of neon glowing lightsabers filling the square in front of the iconic arch.

The Lightsaber Battle NYC may not sound like a typical feature of Washington Square Park, where you’re usually more likely to find classical concerts. But Bracken, a 27-year-old native New Yorker, has organized the Star Wars-themed get-together for the past six years through his events company Newmindspace, which he founded with partner Lori Kufner in 2005.

The first Lightsaber Battle looked quite different from the LED spectacle that took place last weekend though. “We would give out like 1,000 cardboard tubes that we had spray-painted with neon spray-paint. And we had generators and big black lights that we shone onto the paint. It was very complicated and I’m really glad that we don’t do it anymore,” Bracken said before the event, which also features an after-party.

Bracken estimated that about 1,500 people had shown up, more than in past years. One thousand pre-reserved lightsabers were distributed from the back of a van for $10 apiece. Everybody else brought their own.

One of them, 24-year-old Eric Capuano, works at FreshDirect, but pursues lightsaber combat as a “passionate hobby.” He doesn’t describe himself as a die-hard Star Wars fan, and indeed not everybody at the park seemed to be counting the days until the next Star Wars installment will hit theaters next December.

Bracken said that he also recognizes a lot of people from his other events, like the annual Bubble Battle and Pillow Fight Day. “I think people just love to have an opportunity to socialize in public and do something that’s fun and free.”

People like the group around New Yorker Matt Lowenthal, 27, and his cousin William, 17, who was visiting from Vermont. “It worked out perfectly. We thought, ‘what can we show him in New York that you’re not going to find other places? Hey, let’s go to the park and have a lightsaber battle with a bunch of other New Yorkers!’” said Matt.

Ismael Diaz, 63, who lives on the Lower East Side, stumbled into the spectacle, like many among the sizable crowd of spectators. “They’re freaking out! I don’t even know what this is. It’s crazy, but it looks like fun,” he said with a big smile.

While the park turned into a galactic battlefield, not everybody showed understanding. “New Yorkers, they are kids,” was the verdict of Hubert Boutaloup, 52, who is visiting from France.

And there’s another twist to the story — Bracken didn’t have a legal permit for his event from the Department of Parks and Recreation, and indeed almost never has one for any of his events. “I have not been arrested yet,” he said.

Anne-Marie Sumner, president of the Washington Square Association that organizes the park’s esteemed music festival, didn’t know about the Lightsaber Battle but is nevertheless “appalled. Well, you know, that’s unacceptable, period. Our park is precious […] and we have a lot of people. We can’t afford to not have some organization in the events that occur,” she said in a phone interview on Monday, after the event.

“While this event did not receive a permit from NYC Parks, we worked with the NYPD to ensure that they had a presence at the park to best ensure the safety of all involved,” Phil Abramson, a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, wrote in an email statement on Monday.

Eileen and David, an elderly couple from Washington Heights who were just coming from the Blue Note jazz club nearby, don’t take these things too seriously. “Legal, shmegal! It’s wonderful” Eileen said cheerfully while screaming kids ran by, chasing some of the older fighters. “If it’s not legal, it should be legal — put it that way.”

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